Sunday, September 18, 2016

Ep 33 - Song 1: "She Was the One That Got Away" by Gloom Balloon, plus Joe Lawler on Chad

For years I knew that there would be little overlap between the bands I interviewed for Juice/The Des Moines Register and the articles in Cityview. But one day I opened the weekly and saw a new music writer, and he had interviewed the same shitty pop singer I had.

This Chad Taylor asshole and I were going to have issues.

But when we eventually met in real life, I found that just like all assholes, he gets covered in a protective layer or three around the general public. If you don't focus on the asshole part, Chad is a pretty decent guy. The asshole is still there, but tucked away and forgotten, blending into a sea of similarly covered assholes.

I know Chad and I didn't always see eye to eye on Gloom Balloon, which I likened to the Plastic Ono Band to Poison Control Center's The Beatles, and Chad probably compared to "wet fart noises filtered through Chris Ford's trumpet." But I know he at least had an appreciation for "She Was the One That Got Away."

If this were our radio show, this is the point where Chad would start making silent jerk off motions, so let's just play the song.
- from Joe Lawler for this podcast
- Joe Lawler is the music writer for Cityview, Chad's old job, and the former music reporter for The Des Moines Register and Juice
- http://www.dmcityview.com/the-sound

"...classic Gloom Balloon; bright and shiny, and fun and light, but full of a melancholy that is neither crushing nor even really all that tragic. Gloom Balloon deals in the melancholy of knowing that the 15-year-old version of yourself wouldn’t necessarily approve of how your life turned out but also knowing that the 15-year-old version of you is an idiot who had garbage opinions about almost everything. Plus, I love trumpets."
- from a Casey Erixon review on the DSMShows website

"Both performers can be entertaining, creative and engaging, but Gloom Balloon (officially just Fleming, joined on stage by Ford as a special guest) is something different. Both Ford and Fleming have always been part musician and part performance artist. The split’s usually around 60/40, which will vary on any given night. But Gloom Balloon crosses that line from 'I’m avant-garde' to 'you just paid to watch me mess around for half an hour.'"
- from Chad Taylor in Cityview